I'm not going to speculate, but Alibre doesn't have tools to make working with 3D scan data any easier.
I have used the Einstar 3D scanner a couple of times. My main objective was to obtain a scan of a machinery part and then compare the scan with the 3D model. I have learned a little bit about the fundamentals of 3D scanning while wrestling with this task.
I assume you have created a mesh after scanning and patched the holes using the software that comes with the 3D scanner. You must have also figured out your global coordinate system. Finally, you should have ended up with a large tessellated scan data set, traditionally exported as an STL file.
Alibre cannot directly import STL files. Watertight STL models with a moderate number of triangles are more likely to be imported into Alibre after using STL to STP converters. You can use the stltostp executable (check on GitHub) or use FreeCAD for conversion.
Most likely, you are going to have a hard time converting and importing the raw STL file that you just exported from the 3D scanner's software. Therefore, in my opinion, the first step should be reducing the face count of the STL file. You can use Meshmixer for that. There may be other options out there, but I'm not familiar with any others. You will need to find a good balance between precision/detail and manageable triangle count.
I found the following scan on the internet:
This is an industrial sink we scanned with peel 3d. It’s a pretty large simple yet rather complex object to scan. The large smooth areas make it particularly challenging to scan; another example of where the markers come in handy! You can also see the workflow on our YouTube channel here...
sketchfab.com
It has 630,145 triangles. I remeshed and reduced the count using Meshmixer; see how the original and reduced files look below:
You could also trim the areas that are not of interest. In this double sink, we could possibly trim half of it if we know it is symmetric, and we could potentially get rid of the legs as well. That would bring the triangle count down to just shy of 50k.
From here, you can start creating planes, then draw sketches on these planes, and finally reconstruct the geometry using Alibre's standard tools.
I believe there is much more to discover, and it requires patience and passion. Reverse engineering is a huge topic.
I hope this gives you some direction, and hopefully, I can learn from others who might have a better approach out there. Thank you for this thread.
